I was in London last week to see an exhibition of the work of McCauley ‘Mac’ Conner at the House of Illustration at King’s Cross. Mac was an admirer of the work of Norman Rockwell and became one of the leading illustrators in NYC in the 1950s and early ‘60s working for many of the leading magazines of the era. His style of work helped to define post-war America. This was a superb exhibition, notable especially for the way his work, nearly always involving people, imitated so cleverly the way we see the world through wide-angle lenses. To see some examples of his work click here.

The area around King’s Cross continues to develop, and each time I re-visit there is something new to see. As one development is finished another gets under way and the active zone is boarded-up. I have written before about the cleverness and artistry of modern boarding (or hoarding) – click here to see a previous example.

On this most recent visit I found myself staring at fish attached to a checker-board designed boarding.

I have no idea of the significance of the ‘fish’ apart from the fact that this was close to the Regent’s Canal and also on the edge of Central Saint Martins campus (a world-famous art college). As Alice would say: ‘curiouser and curiouser’.

Whatever the reason for them being there they attracted my eye, especially this second image of two fish tails.

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About LensScaper

Hi - I'm a UK-based photographer who started out 45+ years ago as a lover of landscapes, inspired by my love of outdoor pursuits: skiing, walking and climbing. Now retired, I seldom leave home without a camera and I find images in unexpected places and from different genres. I work on the premise that Photography is Art and that creativity is dependent on the cultivation of 'A Seeing Eye'. I'm not averse to manipulating images to produce derivatives that may sometimes be far removed from the original.

This was one of those instances when I really couldn’t work out the crop at the taking stage, and I knew I had to have the background straight because of its geometry, so I left quite a margin to play with.

I so enjoyed the link to the work of the illustrator. He worked during the era of my childhood, and those magazines referenced were among my favorites: especially “Colliers.” All of them were in our home, though. Those were the days of subscription offers, and everyone took as many magazines as they could afford.

The fish are wonderful. I suspect if we tried, we could come up with some fish tales — but it would be fun to know why the artist choose to portray them. You don’t suppose there was something fishy going on, do you?

From what you write I think you would have loved this exhibition, Linda. Mac Conner is still alive aged 101. The exhibition included a video of an interview with him from 2014, and it was quite clear that he was still sharp mentally.

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